August 2, 2009

Microsoft have announced that they are going to be producing a “Family Pack” of Windows 7 Home Premium (which is the version most people are going to want, and has all the media features you’ll need) and the pricing has been confirmed at $149 US. Unfortunately it’s only going to be available in “select markets” but it’s a great start. For your $149 you’ll get 3 licenses for Windows 7 so it can be installed on 3 PCs, (wow that’s just $50 per PC!!!)

Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU) pricing has also been confirmed, WAU is a built in way to move up the tree in terms of Windows versions. For example a user of Windows 7 Starter Edition (the version that will ship with netbooks) can upgrade to Home Premium and all it’s features for $79.99 or if the same person needed to be able to join that netbook to a business network (a “Domain) they could get Windows 7 Professional for $114.99.

Here’s the full pricing (would have been nice to see equal pricing but I guess it’s due to tax rates):

Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium:£69.99 / $79.99

Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Professional: £119.99 / $114.99

Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Ultimate: £139.99 / $164.99

Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional: £119.99 / $89.99

Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate: £124.99 / $139.99

Windows 7 Professional to Windows 7 Ultimate: £84.99 / $129.99

The sweet spot for almost everyone is going to be Windows 7 Home Premium so that Family Pack looks like a bargin!

July 24, 2009

If all goes well, and I don’t see why it won’t, this post should come out whilst I’m off on vacation having just been to an old friends wedding. Obviously I’ve taken some holiday reading, an iPhone on the beach just doesn’t cut it for me. Reviews when I get back.

First up is the 4 hour work week, by @timferris (a.k.a) Tim Ferris. If you’ve not heard of it then you’ve missed something, it’s about how to better manage your life, have more fun, automate your income and other interesting stuff. I’m hoping it’s going to give me some ideas.

Brilliant NLP is next up, it’ll be my second attempt at reading this having not managed it last time I went away. NLP is a system for “programming” yourself to get more out of your interactions with others, it’s a system that’s always interested me and lots of what’s involved I do naturally.

The Gum Thief, by Douglas Coupland is the first of the fiction I’ll be digging into. I really enjoyed JPod , and I’m currently watching the TV series. Coupland has razor sharp wit and I hope this lives up to his previous works.

The last two novels are, The Bombmaker by Stephen Leather, and The Hijack by Duncan Falconer, which should be satisfying my need for reading about explosions and manly stuff. I actually seriously doubt I’m going to get this far, I don’t read fast enough.

July 8, 2009

One of my favourite artists is cartoonist Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid), he’s got a great sense of humour and I reckon he’d be good value at a dinner party. I discovered him through @stevecla and he’s the genius behind Microsoft’s Blue Monster. I thought I’d post my current iPhone wallpaper, taken from his blog where he’s been churning out some classics, such as the one on the left rescently, for some reason this resonated with me.

October 22, 2008

Following my post yesterday about the fantastic Glasses Direct I’ve been contacted by them with a note of thanks, and they’ve given me a discount code that you can use for the rest of this month to get 5% off of any order.

The code is: geekout and is valid for the rest of the month.

Just enter this when you go through the checkout and get 5% off. So that means you could get my glasses, the Mambo Carnival for just £33.25 this week. Now that is value, and you’ll get an edible eyeball too!

June 4, 2008

Well I’m back from a holiday in the Seattle, Vancouver and Whistler. It was amazing and some tech shopping was done. Over the next few days and weeks you’ll see some posts on Squeezebox Duet, and integrating it with Media Center. The new Jawbone (2) and just how super cool it is! Also a handy little thing we bought for our camera.

May 20, 2008

I’m a real WinMo”phile”, and a massive fan of TV, I’ve been watching what’s being written about the Gigabyte t600 for a while and this article over at msmobiles about the device caught my eye. The t600 is a WinMo pro, so that’s one with a touch screen, device that incorporates a whole host of TV recievers for different places around the globe…the UK included with DVB-T support. msmobiles have managed to test the device in the infamous T5 at Heathrow. The results look good too.

March 10, 2008

One of the best communities, and by that I mean most active, most knowlageable and friendly is the Australian Windows Vista & XP Media Center Support Community. I’ve been watching them for a while. It’s how I found out about one of my favourite plugins, myTV and it’s where I’ve just found the list of Vista Tips linked above. A great sticky on their forums.

Also it’s where I found this little app for customising your Media Center start menu.

Simon May is an author, a blogger, a technologist and a geek who loves to talk about technology and help people. The Rough Guide to Windows 7 is Simon's book that helps you get the most out of Microsoft's latest operating system